This invention relates to the creation, transmission and retrieval of information. More specifically, the invention resides in a device for controlling an information-loading terminal such as a PC or other computing/communications device running a browser, and related methods for use of such a device and system. The invention particularly contemplates techniques for locating and loading information from resources such as the Internet, and for creating and transmitting information.
The advance of information technology has placed information on almost any topic at the disposal of every suitably-equipped computer user. The Internet especially is undergoing explosive growth, with the result that new web pages and Internet-based services are proliferating in every field.
Web pages can simply contain reference information but increasingly provide interactive facilities for the provision of information, entertainment and Internet-based services. For instance, many banks now offer customers the option of on-line home banking over the Internet. Large stores offer home delivery services, where a customer places an order for specific goods such as groceries over the Internet and the ordered goods are subsequently delivered to the customer's home.
As more information seekers, such as customers, have become familiar with the possibilities offered by the Internet and as more information providers, such as vendors, have appreciated how indispensable an effective Internet presence has therefore become, URLs identifying Internet resources have proliferated. In fact, it is becoming somewhat rare to see literature such as a brochure, an advertisement or a corporate letterhead that does not recite at least one URL relating to the content of the literature.
Whilst this discussion will major upon Internet issues, it should also be noted that there has been a corresponding growth in the allied technology of e-mail, and hence a similar if not greater proliferation of e-mail addresses.
Various Internet-enabled terminals are threatening the hegemony of the PC as will be discussed below, but it is still the case for most users that Internet access requires use of a PC. Unless the PC is left on all the time and is connected to the Internet by a fast and expensive telecommunications link such as ISDN, Internet access requires the PC to be booted up, following which a dial-up connection to the user's ISP has to be made and only then can the desired web page be searched for or entered. Even then, there could be layers of menus to be negotiated, possibly exacerbated by security measures, each involving download time in what has come to be known as the ‘world wide wait’.
For all of these reasons, it is quite common for several minutes to elapse before an Internet-connected PC is actually ready to help the user with his or her query. This delay discourages the user from accessing the Internet resources from which he or she could benefit and, if the information requested is time-critical such as a bus or train timetable, can make the system too slow to be of practical use.
It will therefore be clear that many laborious steps can lie between reading, say, a URL in a manufacturer's product brochure and successfully obtaining relevant information from the web site thus identified. The problem is worsened because transcription errors often occur. URLs for specific web pages can be fiendishly complex, impossible to remember and difficult to write or to type with the necessary accuracy. The user is then presented with the alternatives of checking and re-entering the URL or, if that doesn't work, searching the Internet for the correct URL with the aid of a search engine. Searching in this way offers no guarantee of success, could misdirect the user to a similar-sounding site, and will almost inevitably require the user to sift through many irrelevant hits. The final alternative, which is to log off and forget about accessing the URL, becomes all too tempting after the user has endured the steps above without success.
In the e-mail scenario, an incorrectly-entered e-mail address could have serious consequences if, say, confidential or otherwise sensitive information is sent to the wrong person. This is worryingly easy to do where many e-mail addresses are similar, an example being personal e-mail addresses within an organization that may differ from each other only in the order of the addressee's initials.
Whilst reference is made above to the problems of a PC, those skilled in the art will know that other computing/communications devices can be used as terminals instead. Such devices are becoming more widespread and promise to continue doing so, driving the next generation of computing within the home and indeed elsewhere as resistance to the PC format is encountered and simpler, more intuitive but no less powerful alternatives come to fruition. For example, existing communications devices such as Internet-enabled mobile telephones, PDAs, ATMs, kiosks and point of sale terminals are contemplated for the purposes of the invention, as are portable screens, digital televisions and set-top boxes, data appliances, desk-top telephones and writing instruments if suitably equipped. The invention can also employ future devices such as so-called street screens, chat booths and retail wands. For convenience, all of these computing/communications devices will be referred to collectively hereinafter as terminals, unless the context demands otherwise.
The abovementioned terminals aim to simplify Internet access by providing a simple alternative to a PC but still suffer from problems. For example, Internet access if just one of several functions that such terminals offer and so a succession of control inputs are necessary to select and to effect Internet access from among the various functions. Also, whilst even the sleekest user interface makes it simple enough to access a web page when that page has been visited before and bookmarked in a browser application, the story is different where the URL has to be entered for the first time. Unless the user happens across a new URL as a link from another page when ‘surfing the web’, the user will have to key in the URL with complete accuracy, using an interface that may be ill-equipped for fast and accurate keyed entry.